Almost Easy
by ashehole
Summary: 10 pairings. 10 drabbles. 10 songs. Happy 4th of July, everyone!


**AN: So, here's the challenge. Pick ten pairings, open up a music player, put it on shuffle, and press play. You have to use which ever song that plays for that pairing. What's the catch? You only have the length of the song to write! ^.^ Read, review, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own. :D**

**Dedication: Well, I know it's not an Independence Day themed story, but I deliver on my dedication promises. This is for you, arrowheadhunter! :3 **

**Title: Almost Easy**

**1. Vanessa x The Atrox**

**Sweet About Me – Gabriella Cilmi**

She shivered beneath the ominous glare of the man before her, but she met his bottomless eyes head-on. She knew that he was trying to teach her a lesson in defying him, but there was something nagging her in the back of her suppressed mind. She knew that he couldn't completely dominate her, even though he kept trying, over and over again. This was a situation they didn't seem able to escape. Her breath was heavy as she struggled against the mental contact.

_Stop trying to defy me, sweet Vanessa._

She smiled, a slick, horrible smile, her mind twisted over the years of false promises. "There's nothing sweet about me."

It was in that moment that Vanessa woke up, sweat clinging to ever inch of her. _Not that nightmare again..._

**2. Stanton x Zahi**

**4 Words (To Choke Upon) – Bullet For My Valentine**

Once upon a dark time, Stanton had found a companionable soul... A man he couldn't exactly call "friend"--what did that word even mean to those such as themselves?--but a man that he could trust.

Once up a dark time, Zahi admired the man called Stanton, as he was new to the Follower ranks, and Stanton—even being an _invitus—_had definitely made a name for himself.

But once upon a dark time always ends... And in dark times, it never ends with a "happily ever after". Especially when a beautiful goddess was at stake. She was a dark force herself, wrapped in pale moonlight. Stanton desired her love. Zahi desired her power.

In the end, only one of them could win, and Zahi came to an understanding that love always beat power... And friendship.

**3. Chris x Kyle**

**Spend Some Time – Eminem **

The two men stared at each other, blinking in silence. Kyle reached up, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Chris stood up straight, tall, stiff. It was his Spartan training, his face relax, his posture narrow, but Kyle couldn't mistake the look in the old boy's eyes. It was a mixture of pain, confusion, and great acceptance. Kyle didn't think he really like that last part of his emotions. Acceptance? Why the hell would this man _accept_ Kyle? He was... All over Catty while Chris was captured, waiting to die at the hands of Adamantis. This was supposed to be a Spartan soldier, wasn't it?

"Look, man..." Kyle coughed gently as Chris smiled at him, his entire body relaxing with Kyle's two words. Kyle took a step back. This made him slightly nervous. He wasn't even going to pretend that Chris couldn't just kick his ass all over this heavenly place.

Chris laughed. "I never thought I'd find someone to be mine. I'm happy that I could be with Catty while I could, despite everything. I'm also very glad that you were there for her when I couldn't be."

Kyle still didn't feel comfortable around the man.

**4. Tymaestra x Penelope**

**Until Now – Adema **

I never felt so alive until I saw her eyes, until I found myself drowning with the utmost pleasure in her wide-eyed stare, her face so innocent and concerned, confusion and fear breeding within those blue orbs of hers. I inhaled deeply, fattening myself on everything my sister began to realize. Oh no, her dearest little sister... A servant of evil... How horrible, how terrible. I couldn't help but laugh at her stupidity.

Did she really think that I was happy and joyous toiling beneath of her when it should have been I who was favored. Penelope, so beautiful and pure and innocent... Even _Hector_ chose her over me!

I found a place where I could belong,where I could be better than my beautiful sister, where I could rise above.

I laughed in her face as her eyes nearly popped from her skull. She was so miserable.

**5. Cassandra x Karyl**

**Free – Karmina **

"Karyl?"

"Eh?"

She had been right. It was the man she was thinking of. She approached the bum slowly, ignoring the reeking stench coming from his person. It wasn't like she wasn't used to this smell, the stench of alcohol, showerless days, and sex, though who he was screwing was way beyond Cassandra.

Cassandra knelt beside him, jabbing a finger into his shoulder, scrunching her nose up. "You smell horribly."

"Bitch..." But Karyl was wearing his goofy smile, which probably just meant that he was loaded.

"What the hell are you doing out here, Karyl?"

"Didn't you know? I'm finally free!" He giggled, spreading his arms, as though he were soaring.

"Yeah... I can see that..."

**6. Morgan x Yvonne**

**Bleed Like Me – Garbage **

Morgan was nervous. Yvonne always did that to her, made her stomach tighten and her body feel like it was on fire. Her mind was floating beyond her physical body, and Morgan blamed that on Yvonne, too, on Yvonne's mere presence, even though it was actually the drugs Yvonne had injected into Morgan's weary veins, a twisted smile on her demonically beautiful face.

Morgan was sprawled out on the bed, her body moving slowly to the beat of the music pumping in the floor from the party downstairs. She laughed to herself, biting on her lip as hands roamed over her barely-clad form. Yvonne loomed above her, laughing too.

The scars on their bodies were so similar, and it made Morgan smile even more. It made her feel close to Yvonne. Not that anybody could ever be on Yvonne's level, but Morgan liked to pretend. Just like her and Yvonne were doing now.

**7. Collin x Serena**

**Ring the Alarm – Beyonce **

The music was what drew in Collin as he walked up the stairs. It was playing loudly, thumping the walls and floor. With an insatiable curiosity, he wondered what it was that his sister was playing. He pressed his ear to the closed door.

He opened the door, presented with the most horrifying sight imaginable to any caring big brother. Serena was wearing practically nothing. She should have been wearing a sweater! And a skirt that came down to her ankles! Not... Not this monstrosity that didn't belong on _his baby sister_. And the way she was moving her body...! Such moves shouldn't have existed in her. This was an outrage!

"What are you doing?" He screamed over the music.

Serena glared at him. "Dancing."

That was the day his eye developed an incurable twitch.

**8. Lambert x Adamantis**

**Everybody's Fool – Evanescence **

Lambert was ambitious to a point, but there was a terrible flaw in his plans that always got him stuck in a round about way that stalled him, and there was just something that he needed to face: He was not the one meant to overthrow his former master. However, Adamantis...

Adamantis had found a way to approach the _Infidi_ leader and point out all of his flaws. He was sentimental. A true love? A fatherly outlook on the favored and spoiled Prince? He was too bold. Declaring war on the Atrox by splitting from the being, taking a few choice Followers, and declaring themselves betrayers?

Adamantis had many cruel and harsh words to describe Lambert Malmaris, but still...

Lambert knew he was needed by the powerful overlord.

**9. Tianna x Shannon**

**Into the Ocean – Blue October **

Truly, she was sorry for Shannon's plight. Failure. That's what Shannon was. A poor predecessor, unable to be everything that Tianna was.

But if she could have traded places with her, Tianna would have taken success over failure. In the end, Shannon was too loyal to the master who had deemed her unworthy, who had crowned her as caretaker for the very creature that was infinitely greater than her. The beautiful Pandoric-replica knew that, in Shannon's place, she wouldn't have been able to handle the pressure that Shannon must have had to feel constantly.

Madness was all the Shannon had, and Tianna... All Tianna had was the foresight to know that she was going to end up either the mother of all Evil or dead.

At least Shannon had the opportunity to end it all, to throw herself into the ocean and let it sweep her away, while Tianna was forced to swim against the tide.

Shannon may have been bitter that Tianna could be the bride, the mother, but Tianna envied Shannon's failure as she faced the Atrox on her own.

**10. Jimena x Veto**

**A Whole New World – Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey (Aladdin Re-Release)**

It was indescribable, the feeling she had as she stood next to Veto, both of them leaning against a brick wall that made up a part of the building Jimena lived in with her _abuela_. Even though her face didn't express it, butterflies danced in her stomach as their arms touched. She turned her head, inclining it as she looked up at the man who had declared her his. How he knew that she liked him was beyond her. She wasn't exactly gifted at the whole "boy and girl" thing, but somehow, Veto always knew these things about her.

They were so attuned to each other, which is why she could trust him to watch her back on these dangerous streets.

He snorted.

"What?"

"I'm not going to wait any longer," he said to her, and she narrowed her eyes in confusion until he grabbed her, brought her closer to him, and lowered his lips to hers, causing fireworks to explode in her body. This was going to be a whole new world for the young girl who had only known violence and gang life.


End file.
